Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Audio Project


Evaluation of The Finished Audio Play


Pros and Cons of the Project

Pros

I feel I co-ordinated the sounds well according to the script; I especially enjoy the cabinet door flinging open with the Thief being caught. The actors also played their parts with the correct level of audio for each line(the Thief spent most of his time whispering whilst the homeowner shouted/spoke most of his lines).  The editing aspect of the project went well with only some minor slip ups here and there(explained in the cons section). I managed to time the edited in sound effects well and each part has the correct level of audio. My team had to improvise many of the sounds as we didn't have the proper equipment(the foley aspect); for example instead of a lamp we used a clicking pen as a substitute.

Cons 

Some of the equipment I had didn't work as well as I wanted; for example the recorder itself was only recording in one channel so I had fix that in post-production. The editing aspect had a slip up as I didn't know how to edit the channels in Logic Pro. Eventually I had to get help and then I was redirected to the program Adobe Premiere Pro to get both channels functioning. During the recording session I had forgotten to hold the mic still so I was waving it around to catch the sounds. I realised that this was a mistake when I listened to the recording; I could hear a whooshing sound. I deleted this recording and started a new one; this time holding the mic still. 

Skills Development

One valueable lesson I had learn't was how to fix audio recording channels; though this was only on Adobe Premiere Pro. I've learn't how to edit audio into a recording whilst properly timing it. 

Contrast with Filming 

Audio and Film development are very different with different levels of difficulty. Planning a film involves obviously differs when you have to draw storyboards for the film sequence; whilst when I was on the planning stages of the audio play I came up with a number of different plots for it, picked one and designed a script around it. I did not have to do a recce sheet for the audio play as I was only in M011.

Improvements

If I could make improvements to my audio play I would try to find more equipment to do foley with; I would've got myself a lamp for the lamp effect and a creaky stool for when the Thief was traversing the house.  I also would've looked for a proper recording device that has both channels working. 

What Did and Didn't Work Well?

I think the recording of the actual play went well as I only had to do three takes(one for the practise run, one that was inturupted when one of the objects fell at the wrong time and the last take managed to run smoothly). The recording whilst initially flawed due to only one of the headphone buds working; did manage to actually get recorded with no other disruptions. The editing process was challenging at first due to the fact that only the left channel was playing audio whilst the right channel   
was staying quiet. To fix this I had to enlist the help of Toby; he equalised the audio so that both channels were playing audio. I did not use different microphones as there were none but if I had I would not have to have gone through the hassle of fixing the audio; I could've also listened to the recording(as I was recording it) with both ears.












Wednesday, 15 April 2015

Radio Play Script



Radio Play Script


Ideas For The Radio Play

Ideas


Settings


  • Warehouse
  • Farm
  • Factory
Sound Equipment


  • Cutlery, dishes and cups to represent a meal scene.
  • Computer boot up sounds to represent someone on the computer.
  • Rub two tin foil sheets to represent static on a radio or television set.
  • A phone could be used for many actions that involve mobiles(such as text tapping and message received sounds).
  • A lamp clicking noise to represent someone sitting at their desk at night.
  • Grit in a tray to represent someone walking up a driveway.
  • Alarm clock beeps to represent someone waking up in the morning.
  • Wooden boards to represent a bridge or flooring.
  • A simple analog wall clock’s ticking could indicate that a scene is set inside a room.
  • A fizzy drinks can cracking open can represent someone drinking.  


Plot Ideas


  • A thief breaks into a house only to be caught by the homeowner. (Sounds needed, carpet/wood, alarm clocks, a bag full of items to drop, a lamp for clicking noises, cutlery and other metals to represent valuables,)
  • The thief could be unseen by the homeowner or the homeowner could be openly looking for the thief.
The thief could either be really professional and leave a tired homeowner guessing or the thief could be clumsy and the homeowner could catch on quickly.

Radio Play Sound Effects
  • These are sound effects I've found on Logic Pro. They include a Gun shot, lock picking and a non diabetic clock ticking sound. I've chosen to get these on Logic Pro due to not being able to replicate them perfectly in real life 
  • I will use these for my audio play
  • The "clock wind up" effect will be a non-diegetic effect as it will constantly be in the background and set the mood



Radio Play After Rehearsals 

  • After the practise rehersals I've realised that I didn't consider the fact that I could not preform some of the voice effects properly for example the muffled talking. The creaking sound effect may be hard to do as there really isn't any equipment to use for a creek. 

Radio Play Case Study

Radio Plays 

Radio plays have to main rely on audio techniques. During the audio project I will be looking at way to enhance an audio play to make it more immersive. The BBC radio play "murder is easy" is based on an Agatha Christie crime book; in the play we can a varyed range of audio effects ranging from crashing, panting and rushed actions(for example hurried paper shuffling or running). Because the genre of the play is crime the actions have to be clearly explained or heard to get the audience fully immersed; if the actions were a little bit off or inaccurate then the audience may be confused about certain parts in the story.

Music is also an important aspect of this particular play as it delivers a lot of audio clues to the audience; for example when a plot twist is uncovered you can hear a striking small tune that brings about a feeling of shock and suspense. Other examples of musical clues are the relaxing tunes when a character is sharing a moment or being snetimental to another character.

To create the enviromental atmosphere of many of the sets the recording areas are changed between a big spaciouse room:

To a proper kitchen or living area to capture the acoustics of a scene:
They even use big sinks to create the effects of a swimming pool or a pond; they have to use this large sink due to the fact that they don't have a swimming pool or a proper bath so this sink will have to do:
There can also be sound absorbing rooms to make an outdoor scene; they use these rooms because if they had used a normal room or hall then there would be an echo effect which is not normally heard outside:

Here are a range of doorbells; each doorbell is very specific to an individual's house. We can see this because there are labels on each one; all the doorbells: 

This is dog food; it is foley equitment used as pig feed and other animal feed.

Equipment Used 

Foley equipment is used for substitutions of other noises in radio plays and films; for example a low budget radio play may not be able to have an actual gun firing so they would use a heavy phone book to drop on a hard surface and create a loud bang noise. Some examples of foley sounds are creaking sounds coming from old chairs. Often in old movies you would find foley equiptment being used; horror movies are an example as they may record a frozen lettuce being crunched as a substitute for a head being squashed. Some other examples of foley sounds are creaking sounds coming from old chairs which could substitute for a stair step creaking. 

Sometimes in radio plays you will just get the actual piece of equipment used instead of a substitute foley; you can see this in the Archer's doorbell picture. They use a board of doorbells which is convenient as the doorbells would all be in one place and you would not have to move the mic between them. This practice is used so that the recording sounds authentic as the noises would be recorded in the same room as the actors and to be added in later. 

You may also digitally add in sound from programs like Logic and other editing softwares; an editor may use this when a recreated foley sound does not sound like the noise they wanted. Gun shots are often hard to re-create due to the fact that there are many other components to a gun shot; you have the initial clicking as the trigger is pulled, the actual bang itself and finally you have the smoke fizzing from the gunshot. All of this would be hard to recreate using low budget objects so you may resort to finding sounds online.

Equipment I Used

For my radio play I have mainly used the foley technique with only a few actual sounds being produced. For example I used a pen clicking to substitute for a lamp and wooden planks that substitute form hard wood flooring. The only noises that were created organically were the sound of an object hitting the floor(this was easy as I did not specify what object I would use) and I also had the idea for one of my actors actually getting into the cabin ate in the recording studio and that produced the sound of the cabin ate opening and slamming open in the script. 

I used digital noises for the gunshot and the loud creaking doors as there were no doors that would produce a loud and ominous creak in the college. I also used a digital gunshot for the reason of a gunshot being hard to organically make or reproduce using foley equipment.

I have used a recorder similar to this make in the picture above. I had mainly left it on the table so that I could focus on holding the microphone still. I found my first practise recording's audio was a bit wavy and all over the place; this was due to me pointing the microphone at the sounds and actors as they were happening. I used proper headphones such as these:
These headphones would've proved more useful then standard headphones as they seem like they can capture where the audio is coming exactly. Unfortunately the headphones only worked in one ear and there were no spares so I had to listen through only one headphone bud. I had also used Adobe Premier to equalise the sounds as audio was only recorded though one channel.






Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Questionnaire

  1. What is your Gender? Tick the relevant box.



 Male



Female


Other

    
   2.   What is your Age? Tick the relevant box.



0-14 Years old


15-20 Years old


20+ Years old


   3.    What is your favorite type of drink? Tick the relevant box.


Water


Fizzy drink(Coke, pepsi etc.)


Alcoholic(Cider, beer etc.)


Tea/Coffee


Juice(Oasis, Fruit Shoot etc.


Other:_________(Write your option here)








  4.   Why do you enjoy that drink type? Write on the lines below.











5. How often do you exercise for in a day? Tick the relevant box.


Never


0-1 Hours


1-2 Hours


2-4 Hours


4-5 Hours


5+ hours



6. What in your opinion is the most appealing feature of a drink? Tick the relevant box.


The colour of the actual liquid


The images on the packaging


The brand name


Other Feature:________(Write it here)


7. Do you prefer flavoured water over regular water? Tick the relevant box.


Yes
No



8. Which design looks more appealing to you? Circle the bottle.




  

 




























9. Do you recycle your bottles?
Yes           

 Sometimes

No


10. Do you look at the nutritional value of a drink before buying it?
 Yes                         

Sometimes


No

M&S Food TV Ad 2014 - Adventures in Ice: Pie Analysis

Advert Analysis
Introduction

The advert I chose was the “M&S Adventures in Ice: Pie”. I choose this because I’ve seen it on TV once or twice and I can remember it really well.

Tone

The tone of the advert is very relaxing and homely. It is relaxing mainly because of the audio; the audio was relaxing as the narrators voice was smooth and the adjectives used brought about a lot of tasty imagery. Soft music in the background also helps the audience relax and get into a state of rest and possibly hunger. The lighting and set design in the video focuses attention to the important objects in the shot for example; the image below shows an egg yolk being spread by a brush. The egg yolk is bright yellow which means it is the first object the audience gets drawn too; the white brush is a darker white which would mean it is the second object that the audience gets drawn too. Finally the background is pitch black which means the other colours are more prominent and noticeable.   



The beginning of the video sets the tone as a grand set is shown, here it is:
The audience might be led to believe that this set is a snowy tundra with a snowy mountain when in fact it is only icing sugar.

Target Audience

I believe the target audience of this advert would be anyone who might buy at shops such as Iceland, Sainsburys or Somerfield regularly and wants a change. This will appeal to them due to the fact that this advert makes M&S seem classy and sophisticated in comparison to Iceland and Sainsburys.

This slide in the advert will further appeal to that demographic due to reissuing the viewer that the food is cheap:
The target audience may include people from a middle and upper class background as it tells them that they would have the same quality of food(like a posh food shop) and have the added bonus of being cheaper than usual.

Language

The language used brings about a lot of imagery. This is to make the reader hungry and more attracted to the idea of buying food at M&S. Most of the language is posh and not much slang is used; this is to keep up the appearance of an upper class advert.
   
Ad Guidelines

This advert does not really promote a healthy lifestyle as it sort of encourages people to be greedy and to want the food for themselves. The unhealthy aspect comes into play when you see foods such as icing sugar and bacon which are both equally fattening; the advert subliminally tells the viewer to buy the food. You can also see that nearly everything is being grilled in the advert which is also not healthy.




Do I enjoy the advert?

I do enjoy the advert due to a number of techniques; one technique would be not showing anybody and only focusing on the products. I enjoy the way they put emphasis on the products by mainly making the set dark. I like the cinematic feel of the beginning of the advert. Finally I enjoy the narration due to the fact that the narrator’s voice makes the advert seem classy and puts the viewer at ease. I would definitely use the technique of only focusing on the drink and not anybody else; in fact I may not use anybody in my advert. I also would try to capture the cinematic feel of this advert.

Market Research-Three Drinks Brands

Three Different Healthy Drinks


  1. Innocent Smoothies


Branding


   
Firstly the logo looks as if it were drawn by a child, this drawing connotes innocence due to it looking like a childs drawing and children are often associated with innocence. The logo’s drawing looks like an angel due to the halo located above the character’s head; this denotes innocence due to angels often being associated with everything pure and clean.


As you can see the website also radiates a feeling of positivity due to the smiling people and goofy objects located on the bottom row. Innocent sells healthy smoothies, because this is the case one of the main elements of the website is trying to live a healthy lifestyle. An example is the segment that states “January is hard, show winter who’s boss” this connotes a feeling of determination which is often associated with exercise. Also the man in the picture is wearing a hoodie which connotes a sense that he has to wear something comfortable to exercise.


Another element of the site is ‘fair trade’; we can see this with the man on the left segment who looks like a worker with a field behind him. He is smiling so this may connote a sense that he is getting a ‘fair trade’ for his fruit.


Advertising


These are two advertising posters that can be found in cafes and shops selling Innocent products. Both these posters have an underlining theme of all natural and freshly made fruits; we can see this with one subtitle which states “acai comes from a tree not a laboratory.” and “We crush all of this(arrow pointing to a pile of fresh fruit)...into this(pointing to a Innocent smoothie carton).”. Because of the ‘freshly made’ themes both these posters connote a sense of living healthily and a healthy diet.
This advert takes more of an comedic approach rather than the heavy handed approach of the previous two adverts. Firstly we see the rabbit talking(rabbits have a mostly healthy diet due to being herbivores) about Innocent contributing to “2 of my 5 a day”; this could connote to readers that they may not have to eat fruit if they have two innocent smoothies a day(there is also a subtitle on the bottom that tells the reader this piece of information). The comedic element of the poster is the the bottle making a comment that implies that the snooze button on an alarm may be the best invention ever; this aspect is to attempt to make the poster funny and relatable.













Packaging Elements and Colour


These are Innocent’s main bottles; the design of the bottle connotes innocence due to the small size and light coloured packaging. Each bottle looks similar, because of this the bottles rely on the colour of the actual drink liquid and then after noticing the colour the potential customer may read the flavour subtitle on the front of the packaging.
On the actual label we can see that Innocent are further trying to cement their brand as a healthy drink as the subtitle under the name is “pure fruit smoothie”; the term pure fruit denotes that the drink is healthy and could be used as one of the five a day.









Language
The language used on the label suggest that Innocent is a brand trying to live up to it’s namesake; for example the box with a yellow outline’s heading is “an innocent promise”. it then goes onto list things that Innocent promise never to do; “we’ll never use concentrates, preservatives, stabilisers or any other weird stuff in our drinks.” is what the text states. The language connotes that Innocent can be trusted and is a friendly face in contrast to the mostly faceless drink industry; we can see they are trying to be friendly due to stating “or any other weird stuff in our drinks.” after a string of complex chemical names. This shows us that the company understands not everybody will understand the terminology and instead cuts right to the chase.


Another use of attempted bonding with the audience is with the use of humor right at the end of the text which is “And we promise to brush our teeth twice a day.” This is just humor and an attempt to form an emotional connection with the audience by making them laugh.








Price
(Tesco)
(Sainsburys)
(Waitrose)
All of these prices are £1.80 or £1.79, this is surprising due to healthy and organic products normally being rather expensive(for example a healthy bottle of juice may be £5.00 while a bottle of Coke may be £2.50). Also for these three examples there seems to be a deal that offers two or three bottles for the price of £3.00. This may appeal to people who are trying to save you money and want to eat and drink healthily.

Target Audience


If we compile all this evidence together we can tell that one of the factors of targeted demographic must be fit or at least active; This is due to the drink being a fruit smoothie also due to some of the words and phrasing such as “we’ll never use concentrates, preservatives, stabilisers or any other weird stuff in our drinks.”


The ages of the target audience could vary as the drink is small and called Innocent which would also suggest that some of the audience could be children.






2. Volvic

Branding


This is the Volvic logo it’s imagery is a mountain but could possibly also be a volcano due to the dip at the top of the mountain as well as the name Volvic. Around the logo is a water spouting in a circle this is just in reference to Volvic being a water company. The logo’s mountain and water spout connote a sense of clean or cleansing water; this is due to mountain water often being associated with cleanliness and often being portrayed with a purifying effect on people. The volcano aspect could connote a sense of freshness due to volcanos normally destroying old land only to be replaced with a fresh new land.
The website backs up the fact that the mountain is in fact a volcano. The website plays on the themes of a volcano due to a number of factors; one factor being the countdown timer that is stating when the volcano will erupt. There are also themes of ‘freshness’ and ‘cleanliness’ due to the lush green fields on the volcano and the plants growing in the foreground.


Below is an image of the volcano erupting; as we can see there is not lava but in it’s place is water. Around the volcano are a group of people holding bottles and musical equipment; they seem to be celebrating the volcano erupting.
The phrase ‘Join the celebration’ below the counter also reinforces the fact that it isa time for celebration.


Volvic has also released a number of other drinks under the Volvic brand, the most notable being the ‘Volvic Juiced’ line of drinks depicted here:
These drinks help cement Volvic’s reputation as a healthy drink. It also helps volvic stay unique and varied as people may only see Volvic as a plain water product.


Advertising
This is a still shot from one of Volvic’s TV adverts. As you can see the characters are puppets and the environment they are in seems to be made from a soft felt material. This advert could appeal to children due to it’s fun nature; it may indicate to children that water(but more specifically Volvic) is not just a boring adult drink but it can also be a fun drink for children. The characters are also fun and non-threatening; this is further sign the advert is aiming at children because if it were adults then the characters would look a bit more realistic and possibly be in cgi.



Volvic also has a more adult themed TV advert as we can see the beginning of the advert depicts a dry and grey earth. It looks like it has been baron of water for a while. Below is the end of the Volvic advert as we can see the earth is a lot greener and there are more brighter colours; this denotes rejuvenation and regeneration. The second shot shows a volcano with the phrase ‘Unstoppable Volcanicity’ which might mean that the Volvic drink will have an unstoppable refreshing taste and effect on the potential buyer.



















This last advert connotes sense of a healthy and green lifestyle. It depicts a toppled Volvic bottle with the water inside it producing plants. The phrase ‘Volvic Regenerates’ further cements the fact that this drink will help you feel fresh when you are exercising or if you are in a tense situation.


Packaging Elements and Colour/Layout


This is Volvic’s label on it’s bottle. As you can see it’s rather plain and colours are light but it does not stand out that well. The blue sky sort of blends in with the water in the bottle; this creates a sort of illusion that may capture a potential buyer's attention a couple of seconds more than an average water packaging.



This is a label from one of the ‘Volvic Juiced’ drinks. This label is much more bright and stand outish compared to the previous one. The label has a more graphics on it for example the strawberry splashing into the water is very detailed. The flavour is in small text located below the image; this may be because Volvic think that the consumers may identify the flavour with the image of the strawberry and the colour scheme.


Colour wise the Volvic plain water bottles don’t have any other colours apart from light green and light blue. Colour’s only really come into play with the addition of the ‘Volvic Juiced’ series as the colour of the drinks help customers understand which flavour each drink is. For example the strawberry image above is mainly red and strawberries are mainly red.


Language


The language on Volvic packages are very limited only to name and maybe the flavour name. In the image above we can see an offshoot of regular Volvic drinks; the main phrase used is ‘a touch of’ this means it keeps still tastes like water but with only a slight difference with the additions of lemons, summer fruits etc.
Price

















Price wise a single bottle of Volvic seems to be priced within the 60p-65p bracket. This may be because Volvic wants their product to be accessible and affordable to a wider market. This could be to promote healthy living a 65p is cheaper than most fizzy drinks; it could also be because Volvic understands water can literally come out of the tap so they sell water cheap to sell more bottles and to not come under criticism for the price.


Target Audience


Volvic seems to be targeting everybody with their advertising, adults and children. Volvic’s main themes seem to be rejuvenating and refreshing because of this the drink may be automatically attractive to those with an active and healthy lifestyle.












Oasis


Branding
While not possessing an actual logo(image) the way in which the Oasis brand name is styled contains a big connotation. The connotation is that the ‘O’ in the Oasis looks wavy at the sides of it; this is sort of like seeing a mirage in the desert. Mirages often tend to be Oasis’.


Considering all of this the name Oasis is very inventive as Oasis’ are known to be rare and a treat for thirsty people. Runners or people that are thirsty may see the drink and picture fruit; this will lead them to believe that Oasis would be healthy then alternative’s such as Coke, Pepsi or any other competitors.


Oasis does not have an actual website but they do have a sub-section on the Coke website; below you can see what the section has to offer. All we can see is ingredients and nutritional properties; this will be good for customers who just want to get down to the actual properties of the drink.
  











Advertising
Here is an advert that would be shown after the TV show “Celebrity Juice”. As you can see the drink itself is positioned directly in the centre of the set with a number of prop objects and food surrounding it. The phrase “It’ll go with anything” is shown below the Oasis name; the phrase connotes that you can have any food with the drink but the foods surrounding the drink are mainly healthy in nature. This further connotes that the suggested food would be healthy.
Packaging Elements and Colour/Layout
As you can see the average Oasis bottle is very colourful; it should be noted that the bottle is also smaller than other drinks bottles. The colours can be attributed to the fact that the drink is trying to advertise itself on flavours and one of the best ways to do that is to help the customer colour associate with actual fruits. The size could either be because more drinks could be brought if the consumer takes a short amount of time to finish the first drink and then wants another. Or this could be because the Oasis company wants to connote the fact that the drinks should be consumed in moderation so the size bottle they provide you with is the ideal amount you should have. The former is more likely.   


Price
You can see that Asda and Morrisons offer the drink at the same price and offer a 2 for £3.00 deal. Tesco offers 4p less than the competitors  but does not offer any “2 for 3” deals.This is because the bottles are small and selling them for the same amount as a large coke bottle would not be good for business